Obama: Trayvon Martin ‘Could Have Been Me’

By
Colleen McCain Nelson

President Barack Obama speaks on the Trayvon Martin case during remarks in the White House briefing room on Friday.

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Six days after a Florida jury acquitted a Hispanic man in the shooting death of an African-American teen, President Barack Obama made his first extensive comments on the case, speaking in personal terms about his own experience of being black in America.

“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” the president said in the remarks, made Friday during a surprise appearance in the White House press room. Mr. Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, was shot and killed in Florida last year in a case that riveted millions of Americans and sparked debate over the state of race relations in the country.

Saying he would leave arguments about the verdict to legal analysts, Mr. Obama didn’t critique last Saturday’s acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who faced various charges related to the killing.

But he tried to explain the lens through which black Americans may see the case, saying that their own experiences and the country’s history with race inform how many view what happened to Mr. Martin.

“There are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars,” Mr. Obama said. “That happens to me—at least before I was a senator.”

The remarks, delivered without a teleprompter, were a striking example of America’s first black president seeking to guide the country’s thinking on race without inflaming racial tensions or undermining the judicial system. They also amounted to Mr. Obama’s most pointed comments about race since his 2008 presidential campaign.

Mr. Obama issued a brief statement the day after the Martin verdict was handed down. He urged calm and compassion, noting that “a jury has spoken.” Missing, though, was any personal reflection from a president with a unique perspective on the matter.

As the week wore on, the drumbeat from civil-rights groups asking Mr. Obama to speak out and take action continued. In recent days, the president had conversations with a number of people about this issue before speaking out, White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Privately, the president had outlined ahead of time the gist of his remarks.

“He knows what he thinks, and he knows what he feels, and he has not just in the past week, but for a good portion of his life, given a lot of thought to these issues,” Mr. Carney said. The president spoke just before a series of planned weekend protests over the verdict.

The president’s comments won praise from Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who called it a powerful moment. “That our president has been profiled should encourage all Americans to think deeply about both the depth of this problem and how our country moves beyond it,” he said in a statement.

Still, underscoring the tensions that continue to fester, Abigail Thernstrom, vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Obama’s original statement on the case struck the right tone and that Friday’s follow-up could have the unintended consequence of ratcheting up racial tension.

“Mr. President, you said what should have been said: A verdict has been rendered,” she said. “Leave it at that.”

In Friday’s remarks, Mr. Obama appeared to be trying to use the megaphone of the White House to affect the national discussion, and particularly to infuse it with a greater appreciation of African-American reactions. He didn’t propose any formal government reaction, and didn’t weigh in on the decision his administration still has to make, which is whether to pursue a case against Mr. Zimmerman using federal civil rights laws.

He did, however, propose an examination of state and local laws to consider whether some encourage altercations such as the one that took Mr. Martin’s life. He said the Justice Department should work with local law enforcement to reduce mistrust in the system, and said that, in the long term, more needs to be done to support African-American boys.

Mr. Obama questioned whether “stand your ground” laws in Florida and other states, which allow individuals to use reasonable force to defend themselves, could have the effect of encouraging altercations. He asked whether the laws send the wrong message and potentially allow individuals to use firearms even when they have other options to escape a situation.

Responding to calls to launch a national dialogue on race, Mr. Obama said such discussions often are more productive in churches and workplaces and within families. “I haven’t seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations,” he said. “They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have.”

As president, Mr. Obama has taken a careful tack on racial issues, picking his spots carefully after delivering a detailed exploration of race in Philadelphia at a pivotal moment in his 2008 campaign. Then, he said that race is an issue the nation can’t afford to ignore, noting that the country had yet to work through the complexities of the subject.

“If we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.”

Since then, he has shied from sweeping speeches focused on race, saying in 2009, “I’m not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions.”

On Friday, Mr. Obama noted that African-Americans are disproportionately victims as well as perpetrators of violence. And while he called for soul-searching on matters of race, he said he sees signs of improvement.

“Each successive generation seems to be making progress in changing attitudes when it comes to race,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re in a post-racial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated. But you know, when I talk to [daughters] Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they’re better than we are.”